


Falling Apart With You

by WishinGirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adorable, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Drama & Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Love, Muggle-born, Original Character(s), Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Romance, Smut, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:34:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26546086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishinGirl/pseuds/WishinGirl
Summary: The story behind Charlie's seemingly non-existent love life during the HP books. A romantic twisting tale of pure blood Charlie Weasley and muggle born Ashlynn Bird, Tonks' two best friends. Begins before the first HP book and continues past the final battle. 'Charlie lay on his bed in Gryffindor tower, playing with the dragon charm she'd given him and thinking of her...'
Relationships: Charlie Weasley/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	1. Falling - Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!
> 
> Welcome to my story about the gorgeous Charlie Weasley. I hope you enjoy it and please review and follow/kudos etc. to share the love and any thoughts you have!
> 
> Wishin' girl x x x

5th Year

Charlie Weasley lay on his bed in Gryffindor tower, staring at the Chudley Cannons poster on the roof of his four poster bed, playing with the dragon charm hanging on leather around his neck and thinking of her. She had given him the charm for Christmas in first year and he'd barely taken it off since then. She'd been up in his room again this afternoon before dinner, she usually came up with Tonks (their mutual best friend and her fellow Hufflepuff) to do homework together on the days that they took Care of Magical Creatures together, he had even more books on his favourite subject than the school library did. He could still smell her perfume in the air and let his mind wander free to thoughts of her.

On Charlie's second day at Hogwarts he had woken up late. He and his dorm mates had been up late the night before getting to know each other, telling silly jokes and showing off as 11 year old boys will do when they make some new friends. Bill (Charlie's older brother) had banged on the door half an hour before lessons started on his way back from the great hall to the 3rd year boys dorm to grab his books for class, having not seen his brother at breakfast. Charlie was a Weasley so skipping a meal was never a good idea. He grabbed his book bag, threw on his new uniform, tying his tie as he went, and legged it down the stairs and out the portrait hole in the hopes of grabbing some toast to eat on the way to Transfiguration, his first ever class at Hogwarts.

As he ran down the last flight of stairs he passed a pair of first year Hufflepuff girls giggling as they made their way up them. Before he knew what was happening he found himself flat on his back at the bottom of the stairs right in front of the doors to the great hall with something heavy on his chest. Groaning, he looked down to see a mess of bright purple and dark blonde hair and felt vibrations through his body as his ears filled with the sounds of a loud guffaw, laughing snorts and tinkling giggles. The purple hair disappeared first, the weight on his chest lessening, and a girl dressed in Hufflepuff robes with unnaturally pink cheeks and purple hair stood over him snorting with laughter and apologising profusely.

"I'm so... so sorry" She squeaked in between snorts of laughter.

"What happened?" He asked in reply gazing down at the other girl who was still laying on his chest, seemingly incapable of standing due to another bout of giggles.

"I tripped and fell into Ashlynn who fell into you…" the purple haired girl replied, her cheeks going even more pink with embarrassment, even though he really didn't think it were possible to go that colour.

"I… I picked her up… out the water yesterday when she fell out the boats too…" the blonde girl on his chest managed to squeeze out between giggles as she propped herself up on his chest looking directly at him.

Charlie's breath hitched as he gazed into the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. Hazel with dark greens and muddy brown swirls like a dense forest and flecks of gold more sparkling than the sun.

"I'm Ashlynn and this is my new best friend, Tonks" she continued as she got control over her giggles and pushed herself up to stand by her 'new best friend, Tonks'.

Charlie took a couple of seconds to bring himself out of his stupor from her hazel eyes before quickly jumping up and offering them each his hand.

"Hi, I'm Charlie!" he grinned. "It's so great to meet some more first years. So far I've only met other Gryffindors but I'm guessing you're both in Hufflepuff?" He checked, shaking their hands like he'd watched his father do when meeting new people. They giggled at how formal he was being and he was once again entranced by the tinkling sound the blond girl made.

"We've got to get to Transfiguration now but it was great to meet you too Charlie." The girl he now knew to be called Tonks replied, smiling kindly back.

"That's what I've got first too, can I walk with you?" he asked with a clear note of hope running through his voice.

The three of them had been inseparable ever since, he'd learnt about Tonks' metamorphic abilities and fallen hard for Ashlynn, even though he still wouldn't admit it out loud to anyone, even 4 years later. He had prefect rounds with her tonight and was anxious to be spending time with her in private, Tonks was usually around as an unknowing chaperone that kept any wayward thoughts in order.

"Knut for your thoughts?" Charlie's older brother Bill asked as he appeared, tall, ginger and smiling in the 5th year boys' dorm room doorway sporting his shiny new Head Boy badge.

"Come to check up on your new prefect, have you chief?" Charlie grinned back at his brother, still fiddling with the charm in the shape of a Romanian Longhorn dragon around his neck, the charm was currently crawling around his fingers and thumb as he rubbed it gently.

"Just reminding you to head down to the entrance hall if you don't want to be late for your first prefect rounds" Bill replied easily "wouldn't want to keep her waiting." He added with a knowing smirk playing on his freckled lips.

Charlie's cheeks blushed deeply around his own smattering freckles as he quickly tucked the charm back under his t-shirt and jumped in front of the mirror to check his hair.

"What.. what are you talking about?" he stuttered nervously, hoping his feelings for Ashlynn weren't too obvious to everyone around him. He wasn't ready for her to know yet and worried he was even more of a mushy git around her than he thought. 'What a Gryffindor I am, I can't even tell a girl I'm in love with her' his thoughts mocked him silently.

"Oh you know" Bill's smirk grew wider as he checked the room was empty other than the two of them and pulled the door shut behind him "Ashlynn Bird's your prefect partner for the year. That is the same Ashlynn you were moaning about in your sleep all summer right?" Bill's smile grew impossibly wide as Charlie's blush spread down his neck and the mottled pink covered his shoulders "Oh Ashlynn...love...Ash my love...kiss me…"

There was a loud thud as Charlie tacked his brother to the floor.

"You tell no one" he said through gritted teeth "she doesn't know, no-one knows and no-one will know, okay. She's...she's way out of my league anyway. She deserves someone better and I can't lose her as my best friend." Charlie's ferocity died as he spoke, his eyes filling with pain. The smirk fell off Bill's face as he wrapped his brother up in a heartfelt hug.

"You are an amazing guy Charlie. You're a prefect, you've been playing seeker on the house team since second year and are the best we've had since at least before I started school. You're kind, intelligent and passionate about so many things, especially your animals and magical creatures." Bill stated firmly and he moved to grip Charlie's shoulders and looked deep into his eyes trying to show him the truth in his words. "She'd be lucky to have someone as great as you. But you stand no chance at all if you leave her waiting on you in the Entrance Hall to start rounds, so up and at 'em Charles Septimus Weasley!" he ruffled Charlie's thick red mess of hair and shoved him out the door grabbing Charlie's quidditch jersey and prefect badge for him on the way.

…

Ashlynn was rushing up the stairs from the Hufflepuff common room having been lounging by the fire playing wizard's chess with one of her two best friends, Tonks, for the past few hours. She liked chess well enough and played a little with her mother back home on the farm, but wizard's chess was far more fun. She and Tonks often used the game to take out their frustrations and after their first run in of the school year with the hated Professor Snape that afternoon they had plenty of annoyance to take out on the poor chess pieces.

"Hey! Ashlynn! Ash, wait up!" She heard a voice calling from behind her in a low octave. Skidding to a halt just before the last set of stairs she turned, a small smile breaking out across her freckled face.

"Jamie, hi. How are you?" She responded sweetly to the muscular seventh year prefect in front of her as he slowed to a jog and she tried to banish her threatening blush. She wondered what someone like him could want to speak to someone like her about as she straightened her top and hoped it covered her curves a little.

"All the better for seeing your beautiful face." he replied smoothly, lifting Ashlynn up into a tight bear hug and spinning her round several times.

"Jamie put me down!" She squealed in response as she started to get dizzy, her blush threatening even more to flourish at any second "Put me down now, please Jay."

Gently lowering her to the floor Jamie Kelling kept his hands resting on her waist and took a deep breath before asking

"The first Hogsmeade weekend is coming up soon, I know the date's not been released yet but I was hoping you might want to go with me?"

"Oh...do you mean with you and your friends or…" Ashlynn trailed off stealing a timid look up at Jamie through her long eyelashes, the blush no longer only threatening but spreading brightly across her cheek bones.

"I mean as a date." Jamie replied quickly, releasing his grasp on her waist and nervously awaiting her response.

"I'd love to" she grinned back at him. Being nearly 6ft tall and curvy, Ashlynn didn't get much romantic attention from any of the boys in her year (or so she thought). She was taller than many of them, well she wasn't taller than Charlie, he was short for his family at 6ft 2 but still a little taller than she was. She was thoroughly self-conscious of the way her curves flowed softly outwards either side of her pinched waist but the boys in her year loved them, most of them considered her to be unattainable and therefore were too nervous to ask her out.

"Great, you're on your way to your first set of rounds right? Have fun and I'll catch you in the common room later." Jamie kissed her sweetly on the cheek and grinned, backing down the corridor as though he never wanted to stop looking at her.

After taking a moment to gather her composure, she turned and darted up the last few steps just in time to see Charlie skid effortlessly into the entrance hall, jumping the last few stairs on his way down the main staircase from Gryffindor tower.

"Hey love" Charlie breathed, swooping her up in her second bear hug of the evening and releasing another set of tinkling giggles from the girl.

"Hey you, let's get going yeah?" she replied, after her breathing had calmed again, and grabbed his hand in hers as he set her back on her feet.

With Ashlynn pulling him along they completed the first half of their rounds quickly and with very little trouble. They were on their way up the astronomy tower when he first noticed her shivering, the crisp September air was blowing in through the open windows now that the sun had fallen behind the nearby mountains. Tugging off his jersey Charlie pulled Ashlynn towards him and unceremoniously plopped it over her head. The jersey fell loosely around her shoulders and she pulled her arms through instinctively.

"Where's your jumper you muppet?" Charlie teased.

"I was playing chess by the fire with Tonks, it was so warm I forgot it wasn't the same around the rest of the castle" she mumbled blushing before noticing what jersey she was wearing and shouting indignantly "Hey! This is a rival quidditch jersey, no chance I'm keeping this on!" she tugged at the arms trying to drag it back off her body as Charlie held down the hem, chuckling at her vivid sense of house pride.

"Well, next time bring your own then" he countered simply, regrasping her hand and pulling her stumbling along behind him still as she continued to try to pull herself free of the red and gold fabric.

She was prevented from arguing any further, however, when they stumbled upon a pair of sixth year Ravenclaw's snogging in an alcove, her leg hooked around his hips and his hand up her skirt.

"Always the Astronomy tower" Charlie grumbled releasing Ashlynn's hand as they approached the amorous couple "10 points from Ravenclaw you two, and use all that intelligence to come up with somewhere more creative to go next time." He scolded, with a much more commanding air than would be expected from the fifth year if you hadn't met his younger brothers, and the pair scurried back down the stairs arm in arm, their faces flushed at having been caught, especially by younger students.

The sun was well over the mountains when Charlie and Ashlynn had finished making their way to the top of the tower. The pair stepped out onto the very top of the tower, the rise and fall of the battlements encircled them, each rise was still low enough to rest their elbows on and each dip large enough for two to sit snugly side by side. The sky was pink and gold over the lake with tiny flecks of light just beginning to show stars and nearby planets.

Ashlynn jumped up onto the wall immediately, kicked off her well worn dark blue vans, plonked herself down on top of the cold stone and swung her miss-matched socked feet to dangle over the edge. Charlie's mind was jerked back to the last week of summer at the sight of her feet dangling precariously so high above the shadowed grounds far below.

Ashlynn and Tonks had just arrived at the Burrow from Tonk's Mum's house and, as usual, fallen onto the floor of the den in a graceless heap of purple and dark blond hair, snorts of laughter and tinkling giggles filling the ears of anyone on the ground floor of the house. The pile soon grew when Fred and George, Charlie's 10 year old identical twin brothers, leapt over the back of the family sofa to join the fun and started a wrestling match. The twins always lost against these two girls, who were strong and feisty, but that didn't stop them having tons of fun in the process. The twins' mother, Molly Weasley, soon appeared in the open doorway wearing a flour dusted "world's best Mum" apron, to find out what all the fuss was about and to make sure the twins weren't causing too much of a mess before Charlie's friends arrived.

"Fred, George, what on earth… oh it's you two dears! Welcome, welcome! Boys get up and let the girls breathe." Molly admonished kindly. "Charlie's just popping some sweet treats in the oven - I think he wanted to surprise you with his culinary skills though so don't tell him I told you" Molly said with a wink as she grabbed the two girls and pulled them off the floor into a tight group hug.

"Hi Mrs Weasley, thank you for having us and letting us stay for the week" Tonks and Ashlynn responded in unison before being overcome with mirth again.

"It's so lovely to have your laughter fill the house girls, you know you're welcome any time" Molly said as she bustled them into the kitchen with their bags, calling out "Charlie dear, your friends have arrived."

As they entered the Burrow's large family kitchen they saw Charlie frantically trying to rub the flour out of his deep red hair, but instead only succeeding in getting more and more of the white dust in it from his messy hands. The sweet smell of cookies filled the air and the shouts of young children playing in the garden wafted in through the open windows above the double sink. 'It's good to be back' thought Ashlynn, smiling as the warmth of the love filled home filled her heart.

Later that evening the two girls set up their overnight stuff in Ginny's room, the Weasley's youngest child and only daughter had been moved to bunk with her brother Ron for the week. They were only 7 and 8 years old so were still best friends and were very excited to be allowed to have sleepovers every day that week. The girls stayed up chatting after being sent up for an early night by Mrs Weasley, but after a few hours Tonks was fast asleep snoring while Ashlynn stared up at the ceiling trying to clear her mind.

When she was sure everyone was asleep, Ashlynn crept out of bed, donning her favourite denim jacket over her strappy pajama top and booty shorts, and left their borrowed room for one of her favourite places in the world. However, despite visiting her place almost every night she'd spent here over the past five summers, she forgot about the creaking floorboard directly outside the room that Bill and Charlie shared. Her weight landed on it as she padded up the wonky stairs and it emitted a loud creak as she lifted her foot back up. Frozen in place Ashlynn held her breath waiting for someone to break the silence and get her in trouble with the Weasley matriarch on her first night here. When she was content that no-one had been woken she let out a relieved sigh and continued padding up the staircase.

…

Charlie was having trouble sleeping. He was excited to have his two best friends staying and was glad that they'd enjoyed eating the cookies he'd made for them earlier (white chocolate and macadamia nut, Ashlynn's favorite). Thoughts of Ashlynn in bed just one floor down plagued him no matter how hard he tried to push them away. The image of her snuggled in blankets with her hair mussed up on her pillow and a freckled leg, bare to the upper thigh in the booty shorts she usually came down to breakfast in during the summer, thrown over the covers filled his mind and he struggled to control his breath and his body. He was delicately fingering the tiny Romanian Longhorn charm crawling around his chest when he heard a distinct creak outside his door, followed a few seconds later by a soft sigh. Knowing it would be Ashlynn on her way up to the roof he quietly snuck out of bed, grabbed a t-shirt to go with his loose pajama trousers and followed her to the roof, careful not to wake Bill or step on the creaking floorboard as he went.

When Charlie had passed the rest of his family's rooms and reached the very top of the stairs, he put his foot against the banister and pulled himself up through the skylight and onto the terracotta tiles that were charmed to stick in place, even when you clambered on them. He saw her sitting on the edge of the highest roof of the burrow, her bare feet dangling over the edge as she idly swung them back and forth and her bare sun-kissed, sparsely freckled thighs and gold painted nails shone in the moonlight. After taking a minute to control his breathing Charlie made his way carefully across the tiles and sat down beside her close enough to hear her breath but far enough away from her so as not to be touching her skin, lest his mind wander dangerously again.

"Hey love" he whispered, trying not to break her peaceful aura.

"Hey you" she replied equally quietly, her eyes remained forward gazing out over the orchard down below, watching the fruit bats dance above the trees "it's truly breathtaking up here."

"Yeah" Charlie's voice was raspy as he couldn't take his eyes off how beautiful she looked "breathtaking's a good word for it."

They sat together for hours, chatting about everything and nothing as the indigo sky turned to black and watching the fruit bats changed to watching the stars and moonlit clouds pass by on the summer breeze. He desperately wanted to kiss her then, to tell her how he felt about her; the way his heart stopped every time he saw her, how his breath left his body at the sheer mention of her name, the way his face lit up in a smile whenever she crossed his mind, how he never took off the charm she had given him in their first year. The fact that he was so completely and uncontrollably, head over heels, madly and irrevocably in love with her.

But his Gryffindor courage wasn't enough.

He wanted to kiss her that day on the tower too, the last of the evening's sun was hidden behind the mountains and he watched her face change colour as it glowed in the golden hues then pinks then blues of the darkening evening sky. He watched the soft movements of her rosy lips as she told him what she had learnt in astronomy about the stars she could see appearing above them and he felt the way her fingers tightened around his encouragingly when he told her about the new creatures he had read about that might be living in the lake or hidden in forbidden forest below them.

They finished their rounds hand in hand chatting about their day, throwing quidditch based trash talk at each other and laughing at the childish jokes they took turns telling. Ashlynn had a soft feminine figure that secretly hid strong muscles which allowed her to excel as a beater for the Hufflepuff house team while Charlie's long arms and disproportionately large hands helped him as Gryffindor's seeker (he looked a little like a puppy dog whose paws were too large for the width of their limbs, but like a growing puppy, Charlie's muscles were starting to fill out more and more). When they finally stepped back into the spacious entrance hall, off which the prefects' office could be found, on the way to complete their report for that night's rounds, Charlie was in the middle of telling her a rather rude joke he'd heard from Bill.

At the sound of her tinkling giggles Jamie looked up, he was leaning against the wall by the main doors with his arms folded across his chest, perfectly displaying the bulging biceps he used in his role as Hufflepuff's quidditch keeper. Charlie paused the telling of his joke at the strange sight of a seventh year prefect in the entrance hall this long after curfew.

"Hi James, everything alright?" Charlie asked with his hand still gently wrapped around Ashlynn's and a slight air of hostility towards the older boy.

"Just popped by to walk my Ash back down to the common room" Jamie replied confidently, pushing himself off the wall and striding across the stone floor to greet them both. "Hey beautiful" he sighed wrapping her up in a hug as her hand fell from Charlie's to reach up and wrap around his neck "what's with the Gryffindor jersey? Not abandoning your teammates so early in the year now are you?" he teased with a slight edge in his voice that only Charlie seemed to notice.

"Never" she grinned up at him "I forgot my jacket so Charlie leant me his. The rest of the castle's not as cosy as Hufflepuff's common room." turning to her best mate she pulled the jersey off over her head, accidentally causing her t-shirt to ride up with it and exposing her pierced belly button and lower ribs to the two boys "thanks Charlie, I'll try to remember to bring my own next time."

Charlie was slightly choked at the sight of her soft lower torso and a heavy blush flooded his skin. This, thankfully, went unnoticed by Ashlynn but, unfortunately for Charlie, not by Jamie who immediately wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders and glared harshly at the younger male who had been ogling the girl he was dating.

"Charles, you don't mind filling in the report for you two this week do you? I'm going to take Ash back to the Hufflepuff dorms for the night." Jamie had carefully chosen his words to trouble Charlie as much as possible, the suggestive tone of the term 'dorms' and the leer upon his charming face broke Charlie out of his stupor and the flexing of Jamie's muscles as a silent threat didn't go unnoticed.

"Sure. Yeah. Of course. No problem." Charlie mumbled in response, dropping his head and slumping his shoulders in defeat. Ashlynn clearly looked comfortable in Jamie's hold and he would never deliberately do anything to risk hurting her in any way or losing her as a friend. Even if she hadn't mentioned her new 'boyfriend' to him, despite them talking for hours. He watched forlorn as the pair waltzed down the stairs in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room, wishing it was his own arm wrapped around his beautiful best friend instead.


	2. Falling - Chapter 2

The next morning at breakfast Charlie was glaring at his food like it had personally offended him. His dorm mates sat around him chatting about the latest quidditch news and betting on the next day's league games. Fridays were Charlie's least favourite day for lessons but even that wouldn't usually put this much of a sour face on him.

"What's up Charlie boy?" Graham nudged him with his elbow after a while, as he reached for another sausage and shoved it in his mouth "Worried about the Cannon's game tomorrow? Worried they'll lose to my mighty Appleby Arrows?" Trying to bring some humour back to Charlie by jumping to his feet on top of the bench and pretending to fire a bow and arrow at Snape's end of the teachers' table. He was worried about his friend as Charlie had been in this mood since returning from rounds last night and it was so unlike him.

"It's nothing." Was Charlie's snapped response.

"Come on mate, it's not all bad. Maybe Snape will have actually washed his hair today, who knows, miracles can happen after all!" Kenny laughed from across the table, trying to help Graham in easing the tension surrounding his dorm mates.

"Seriously whatever's up, we're all here for you, you know." Jake added from Charlie's other side with a simple pat on the shoulder.

Charlie was born during the first wizarding war so the birth rate was low and his dorm was small, however he and the three lads he was sat with at breakfast had filled the large room with all their junk and quidditch gear within days of arriving in first year. Gryffindor was the house most affected by the low birth rate during the war as so many ex-Gryffindors were fighting at the time or had perished in battle, but the rest of the year group couldn't be described as big either. The three boys had instinctively surrounded Charlie at breakfast in the hopes of drawing him out of the foul mood he was in. Charlie was usually so bouncy that it was difficult for them to know how to help him out of this grim mood.

"I said it's nothing." Charlie snarled through gritted teeth as he pushed his breakfast around his plate with a fork, not really feeling very hungry.

A tinkling laugh echoed across the hall catching Charlie's attention and drawing his eyes up for the first time since arriving at breakfast. His mates followed his line of sight and sighed as they saw Ashlynn sat at the Hufflepuff table cuddled up next to Jamie Kelling, with him laying sloppy kisses all over her cheek as she wriggled and giggled in his arms.

Pushing his plate away harshly, Charlie grabbed his school bag and stormed off, heading straight to his first class of the day, Potions with Professor Snape.

…

Charlie's friends had chased him down before he made it to the classroom but weren't able to calm him enough for Snape not to wind him up enough to give him detention for 'being rude'.

"I'm only saying that if you're way is so damn great then why is it not in the textbook?" Charlie had asked in frustration at the lack of continuity between the textbook's instructions and those that Professor Snape had written up on the black board for them to work from.

By the end of classes for the day the grey cloud following Charlie had simply grown thicker rather than blowing away so he took himself to bed early to brood.

As he lay in bed staring up at his favourite Chudley Cannons flying around their bright orange poster on the roof of his four poster bed, the breeze from a nearby open window wafted past his quidditch jersey floating the sweet floral smell of Ashlynn's perfume, clinging to it from rounds the night before, straight over to him. Charlie groaned deeply as his body rebelled against him. He buried his face in his pillow and begged his mind not to develop any inappropriate thoughts about one of his best friends.

Thankfully for Charlie's sanity a loud banging on the dorm door brought him out of his thoughts of Ashlynn and her exposed midriff as she removed his quidditch jersey.

"Oi loser let me in!" Tonks bellowed through the door as she continued to pound her fist against it.

Charlie got up stiffly and opened the door for her to enter, trying to put on a fake smile for her benefit. He didn't want news of his bad mood getting back to Ashlynn, she was pretty smart and he didn't want to risk her joining the dots and dumping him as a friend.

"Get that lie off your face" Tonks demanded as she strode over and plopped herself down on the window seat next to his bed. "Jake told me you were having a bad day." She spoke calmly with sympathy clear on her face.

"I guess" he grunted in response, before face planting his bed as he was hit with another waft of Ashlynn's perfume from his jersey.

"What happened?" she probed.

"I reeeally can't talk to you about this..." he responded after a long, dragging silence.

"It's Ashlynn and the man-mountain whose lips were all over her at breakfast isn't it." Tonks stated rather than questioned and the lack of judgment in her voice shocked Charlie.

She knew her best friends and she'd known that Charlie was madly in love with Ashlynn even before he knew. She didn't miss the longing looks he gave her, the fact he always went out of his way to make her days happy with even the smallest kind gesture, the way he fussed about his appearance a lot more whenever she was around, the way he always made her favourite flavour of cookies when they went to visit, the fact that he ignored the hoards of girls who flirted with him around school…

He was very attractive and he had a lot of female attention, not that he ever noticed. He was fairly tall already standing at 6ft 2, when he wasn't slouching in defeat, with a cute smattering of freckles all across his body (or at least across face, arms and legs, Tonks hadn't verified the rest and since Charlie was the closest thing she had to a brother she really never wanted to), slightly tanned skin from spending so much time outside looking after various animals and magical creatures, dark red hair that lightened in streaks in the summer sun, deep blue eyes with silvery swirls like the crest of a tumbling wave (or so she was told by many smitten fellow students, again as Charlie was essentially her brother she didn't spend too much time gazing into his eyes, however dreamy the other girls in their year deemed them to be), large hands which were slightly rough from all the extra work he did around the Burrow during holidays and with the school's groundskeeper, Hagrid, whenever he had a free period while she and Ashlynn were in class. Charlie was muscular but wouldn't be considered buff, his chest and abs were firm but not defined and his biceps didn't bulge in his t-shirts like Jamie. 'Not yet anyway' he thought, planning to get buff for Ashlynn, telling himself it was so he could protect her in case Jamie wasn't a perfect gentleman rather than so he could attempt to steal her affections from him.

He opened his mouth to deny Tonk's statement of Ashlynn's new boyfriend being the cause of his bad mood but caught the lie before it left his mouth when he felt himself welling up. Tonks wasn't pushing him or forcing him to talk. She clearly knew his deepest secret and she was still willingly sat there with him. She was still his friend.

"Oh Charlie" Tonks sighed at the sight of her choked up best friend and reached out to hug him.

He had never been more grateful to have a friend than then.

…

The next morning he woke up before his dorm mates, showered, dressed in ripped jeans and an old t-shirt displaying a muggle band called R.E.M. that Jake had given him for his birthday a few years before, and headed down for an early breakfast. As he was only up this early because he had a morning detention on the first Saturday of the first term he didn't expect to see anyone else in there with him but as he entered the great hall he froze with his breath caught in his throat.

The only other person in the cavernous room, under the early morning bright blue sky of the enchanted ceiling, was sat at the Hufflepuff table. Her eyes unfocused as she stared into nothingness and munched on a piece of french toast provided by the school's house elves. Her crazy curls hung past her shoulders and her side fringe fell into her hazel eyes getting caught on her long eyelashes darkened with mascara.

Charlie felt himself gravitating towards her and sitting down on the opposite side of the table to her before his brain could even register what was going on.

"Morning you" she smiled across at him warmly, clearly glad to have the company of at least one of her best friends at breakfast (the other was probably still snoring in her sleep back in their shared dorm room) "what are you doing down here so early?"

He felt his inside thaw as she smiled, the grey clouds floating around his head and heart since rounds on Thursday night finally clearing at the sunshine gold flecks in her eyes.

"Detention," he responded nonchalantly with a small shrug as he stole the other slice of french toast off her plate "I may have sassed Snape a little bit" he added with a boyish grin before taking a bite.

"Detention for me too" she replied with a tinkling giggle at his antics "nothing as meaningful as sassing Snape though, Jamie and I got caught in a broom cupboard. His detention is this evening so we 'don't get too distracted'." she chortled as she impersonated Professor Sprout's strict voice from the night before and rolled her eyes at the memory.

Simply at the mention of her and Jamie in a broom cupboard the grey clouds loomed over him once more.

"What do you even see in that dimwit anyway?" he demanded of her harshly "You're way too good for him. And seriously a broom cupboard Ashlynn, what were you even doing with him in there!?"

"I don't know if I should thank you for the sweet intentions you clearly meant to portray with your 'too good for him' comment or be angry at your choice of wording and that question?" she responded, taken aback at his harsh tone "Jamie and I are dating and if you must know, we were just kissing. Or what, is that illegal now? Surely this is seriously hypocritical of you anyway, I've seen all those girls flirting with you, you can't tell me you've not done worse!"

Charlie blushed deeply. He'd never actually accepted any of their advances and barely even noticed their flirting, instead was informed of it by his dorm mates afterwards. He only had eyes for one girl and she was clearly interested in a different boy.

Jumping up from the table in frustration, Charlie threw the rest of his food down on an empty plate and stormed off to Snape's room to get his detention over with.

...

Charlie stood with a look of intense concentration on his face, he was doing his hair in their dorm's bathroom mirror, trying to get ready to go to Hogsmeade on the first visit of the year. It was mid October in the highlands so he grabbed his Gryffindor scarf as he left the dorm, prepared for the Scottish chill waiting for him outside. Finally ready to go, he stepped out the door and promptly collided with Bill.

"Watch out mate" Bill chided as he grabbed his brother in a man hug "you look dressed up. Going somewhere nice?"

"Hogsmeade with Mary-Angela." Charlie grunted, wriggling his shoulders to get comfortable as he put on his coat. It was a bit tight now because he'd been using exercise to take his frustrations out ever since his first run in with Ashlynn and the man-mountain that was her boyfriend, seventh year Jamie Kelling.

"Ooh the busty Ravenclaw in your year?" Bill asked with a cocked eyebrow and tone of approval "Not chasing after Hufflepuffs anymore then?"

"Ashlynn is with Jamie. He has made that quite clear by picking her up after rounds every Thursday night and snogging her in broom cupboards all over school." Charlie grumbled.

"Sorry mate. She's missing out, Mary-Angela's a lucky girl." Bill patted his brother's shoulder sympathetically.

"Yeah, we'll see."

They continued chatting together, talking about schoolwork, house and league quidditch, what to get their family for Christmas and trading any new dirty jokes either had heard since they last spoke, all the way down to the courtyard where Charlie was pounced on by his date.

"Hey there handsome" she flirted brazenly, fluttering her thick eyelashes and pressing her breasts into his chest as she hugged him tightly.

"Hey Mary-Angela" he replied confidently, while she wasn't the girl he really wanted he knew lots of boys did want her and would be jealous of their date "ready to go?"

They joined the queue a few places behind Bill and, once they were signed off by Filch, headed down to Hogsmeade and straight into Madam Puddifoot's tea room. The room was full of pink lace and doilies, Charlie hated it immediately but Mary-Angela seemed to adore it so he tried to hide his repulsion at the sickly smell of turkish delight and cream. The pair had very little to talk about but Charlie was a Weasley gentleman so he sat patiently and listened to her prattle on about divination and the inner eye, as he tried not to be too overwhelmed by the tea room's garish assault on his senses.

Several hours passed in continuing dull conversation and after visiting both Zonko's and Honeyduke's, Mary-Angela suggested they head down to the shrieking shack to share the small stick of candy floss he had bought for her. Charlie dragged his feet through the fallen leaves on the path out of Hogsmeade, his hands shoved deep into his Jeans pockets.

When they arrived at the fence overlooking the tattered walls and broken windows of the dilapidated old building she made her move to kiss him.

"You're even sexier when you're brooding" she murmured as she gripped his belt loops and pulled her body closer to his, her eyes flicking up and down between his dreamy blue eyes and chapped lips.

"Hold on" Charlie said gently cupping her cheek and holding her face away from his "I'm not interested in a relationship. You're really pretty and I would very much like to kiss you right now but I'm not looking for a girlfriend anytime soon and I'm not looking to be exclusive. I just thought you ought to know before acting on our desires." He'd been working on this line with Graham and Kenny all week. He had decided that he wanted to play the field, get some experience and maybe even make Ashlynn jealous. However the lessons from his father on how to treat women respectfully kept echoing around his skull, he was still in love with Ashlynn and did not want to lead any other girls on by being in a relationship with them, it wouldn't be fair.

Shock coloured her face but was quickly overtaken by determination. She thought it added to his bad boy quidditch player charm and that she would be the one able to change his mind.

As Charlie moved his hand gently into her cropped brown hair she leaned forward brushing her lips against his. Their mouths moved in time and the gentle kiss soon became passionate and handsy. Pushing her against a nearby tree, Charlie growled as she arched her back, pushing her breasts against him once again. He rocked his bulging erection against her pelvis eliciting a small moan from her bee stung lips.

After about half an hour of lustful snogging the two pulled apart breathless and the pink candy floss laying forgotten on the floor.

…

From that evening onwards Mary-Angela raved about Charlie's snogging skills to anyone who would listen and over the next few weeks the two could be found in broom cupboards and secret passageways engaging in more heated snogging sessions. Their hands roamed and explored but always remained above clothes, however Charlie was becoming very successful at pleasing a woman without the need for skin to skin contact.

One Tuesday morning in November one of the Gryffindor girls in his year, Jainey Crow, was sat with him and the other fifth year boys at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast when she looked up to see Mary-Angela waltzing over towards them swaying her hips seductively. Jainey was not so secretly a little miffed at this as she had also found Charlie very attractive for years, even more so now he was bulking up and his chest becoming less and less untrimmed.

"Look alive, your girlfriend's on her way over" she pointed out, knocking Charlie's knee with her own.

"Huh…" he glanced up confused. Spotting Mary-Angela he clarified "Not my girlfriend" through a mouthful of bacon.

"You two break up?" Jainey asked, surprise evident in her tone, just as Mary-Angela reached them.

"Nope, I don't have girlfriends... No strings... I won't be exclusive." He answered between mouthfuls of breakfast, with a wink.

"He's talented enough that I don't care" added Mary-Angela with a smug expression and upturned nose "I'll see you after class today right Charlie?"

"Not tonight, I have quidditch practice" he replied coolly "maybe this weekend." Then he got up, grabbed his bag, winked again at Jainey and sauntered off to class.

"That good, huh?" Jainey watched him go before glancing at Mary-Angela with an interested expression.

"Yeah, that good." The Ravenclaw replied, the smug expression planted even more firmly across her face as she thought back to the orgasm Charlie had given her in a broom cupboard only a few days before, without even touching her skin directly.

…

Ashlynn, Tonks and Charlie always worked together during Care of Magical Creatures lessons and that Tuesday afternoon was no different.

"So I heard that you and that Mary-Angela girl aren't actually together anymore" Tonks probed as she attempted to keep their Bowtruckle placated with woodlice while Charlie and Ashlynn worked together on drawing and labelling a diagram of him.

"We never were" Charlie responded easily with a one shoulder shrug "she's nice enough for a snog but it would have to be someone pretty incredible for me to be exclusive" he elaborated looking pointedly at Ashlynn who was obliviously drawing on their diagram, her tongue poking out between her lips slightly and her brow furrowed in concentration, trying to get the lengths of the bowtruckles fingers and arms in perspective. 'What I would do with that tongue…' Charlie's thoughts drifted way off track.

Tonks sighed, she really hoped Ashlynn would realise soon. Ashlynn and Charlie would be the perfect couple, Tonks was convinced that the pair were soulmates but had vowed to try to get the pair to realise this on their own.

"How about you and lover boy, Ash?" Tonks asked nervously.

"We're good" she replied wistfully, her brow smoothing and a dreamy expression drifting onto her features "I need to talk to you two about something though, but later when we're up in Charlie's dorm."

The rest of the lesson passed easily for the two girls, while Charlie's insides were a ball of nervous excitement for the rest of the school day. Thoughts of 'what if she wants to break up with him, maybe she'll ask us how to do it, maybe she's realised he's not right for her, maybe she'll notice me instead' ran circles through his head all the way until they were seated in his dorm room with their homework laid out on the floor.

Ashlynn was lying on her front on Charlie's bed propped up on her elbows, looking through a book on magical creatures and wand making for their homework assignment, while Tonks gazed out at the lake from her place on the window seat and Charlie sat on the floor leaning against the bed and playing with an old practice snitch, while voicing all the facts he knew about dragons (his favourite magical creature) just in case any of it was relevant for their heartstrings used as wand cores. Charlie was determinedly sat facing away from his bed because Ashlynn lay like this every time they did their homework in here and not only did the position show off the curves of her gorgeous body perfectly, it put her already full cleavage even more on show and she had a beguiling way of tensing and relaxing her butt cheeks alternately as she read.

"I'm out" Ashlynn sighed after an hour, rolling over onto her back and letting the book fall to the floor at Charlie's side.

The other two looked relieved at this announcement and Charlie turned to look at her. His eyes grazed her body, mapping out the contours of her soft curves as she lay on his bed with one arm draped across her eyes. He desperately tried to control both his body and his mind from wandering thoughts. Thankfully Tonks had noticed and taken pity on him.

"You had a question for us earlier Ash. You ready to ask us now?" She asked with a pointed look at Charlie that clearly said 'Mind your boundaries, she needs her friends right now!'

Ashlynn propped herself up on her elbows once again and started tensing and relaxing her bum with nerves (Charlie's brain was trying very hard to mind his boundaries although this was not the only thing about him that could be described as 'hard' right now), she double-checked that they were alone and magicked the door closed with a wave of her wand.

"So I like Jamie a lot right…" she started tentatively "but he wants to do more than kissing and last night he started to feel me up…Charlie why have you gone red like that?"

"Did he push you into something you didn't want?" Charlie asked through gritted teeth, desperately trying to control his breathing and his temper.

"No! No, nothing like that!" Ashlynn replied quickly with a giggle that soothed Charlie right through to his heart "I actually really liked it but I'm enjoying taking it slow, he's two years older than me after all and I just don't want us to get carried away and… well… you know."

Charlie jumped up abruptly, unable to take anymore of the current conversation without either exploding in anger or imploding in misery. He grabbed his quidditch kit bag from the top of his trunk and ran from the room.

"Quidditch practice, sorry girls, I'll catch you later yeah?" He called back over his shoulder as he left the room.

"I want to wait for the right time, for someone special…" he thought he heard Ashlynn say as he ran down the stairs but he couldn't be sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note
> 
> Thank you for reading! Please leave me comment/review if you have a minute spare, I would love love love to hear from you!
> 
> I've got a few chapters stored up ready to upload and am working on the rest so updates will be fairly quick,
> 
> Wishin' girl x x x


	3. Falling - Chapter 3

Quidditch practice that night was intense. He had worked out all his anger at Jamie and sexual frustrations over Ashlynn and he was now taking a long hot shower to ease his aching muscles. He had told the rest of the team to go ahead back to the tower without him, he was going to relax under the warm water for a while. When he finally got out of the shower later on though, unsure of how long he'd been in there for, he was surprised to hear footsteps.

"Hello?" Charlie called out, thinking that maybe someone had forgotten something and come back to retrieve it before curfew.

Charlie grabbed a fresh, fluffy towel, quickly dried off his hair and wrapped it securely around his waist.

"Hello Charlie" Jainey replied coyly when he stepped into the changing room "fancy meeting you here."

She was sat in a very short dress on the benches next to Charlie's locker.

"Jainey. How lovely to see you. Do you need something?" He asked politely, not wanting to misconstrue her actions, as he slowly crossed the room towards her.

"Well…" Jainey blushed "I heard some rumours about your… talents… I understand and accept your conditions Charlie. No strings. No commitment. Not exclusive." She punctuated each sentence with a pout, lick or bite of her lips, her eyes roaming over his increasingly chiselled torso.

His mind flew back to Ashlynn lying on his bed and her earlier admission which caused all his anger and frustrations to flood back through his body like a tidal wave. He had found that snogging Mary-Angela kept these feelings at bay so, if she was up for it, why not Jainey too.

Charlie closed the gap between them and, taking her hand, helped her stand before pressing his lips firmly against hers. She kissed him back immediately and the kiss soon changed from firm to needy. His mouth trailed across her jaw kissing as he went. He nibbled her earlobe gently then kissed the soft skin behind it. He left open mouthed kisses down her neck to her collarbone as she moaned and pressed her body firmly into his.

He felt her hands roaming over his exposed torso and clenched his muscles as she did so. Her small hands moved down towards his abdomen and dangerously close to the top of his tenting towel. He pushed his body into hers as he lent her against the wall on the other side of his locker. She whimpered and arched into him when she felt his hard shaft pressing against her pelvis. His hands roamed down her side, gently palming her breasts and tweaking her erect nipples through the dresses fabric as they went until his fingers reached the hem of her dress.

His lips released her neck so that he could look into her eyes.

"May I?" he asked, fingering the bottom hem of her dress. She replied simply with a smile and a nod. His hands ran up her thighs and reached for her bottom, squeezing the soft flesh underneath the skirt of her dress, before returning his mouth to hers fervently.

Suddenly there was a loud knock on the changing room door "Mr. Weasley. Are you still in there?" The voice of Professor McGonagall called. "It's 10 minutes until curfew, your teammates said you were still down here."

With a groan he pulled his hands out from under Jainey's dress and noticed the bruises marking the love bites he had left up her neck.

"I'm coming in in 2 minutes, make sure you are decent." McGonagall called through the closed door.

"Let your hair down to cover your neck" Charlie instructed Jainey firmly as he frantically opened his locker. Charlie threw on his trackies and was pulling a clean t-shirt over his head when his Professor opened the door.

"Miss Crow, what are you doing in here, you do not play on my quidditch team." McGonagall started before taking in her and Charlie's dishevelled appearances and the small bruises peeking out through Jainey's hair. "Actually I do not want the details thank you. Detention both of you, Saturday morning for you Mr Weasley and Saturday evening for you Miss Crow. Plus 20 points from each of you, I expect better than this of my students and I will not be happy to see this happen again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Professor." the pair cowered under her firm glare "Sorry Professor."

"Now, back to the common room, both of you, you have only five minutes until curfew. You might just make it if you run." Professor McGonagall finished as she swept out of the room leaving them blushing and holding in their laughter in her wake.

…

Charlie continued to spend time with Mary-Angela and Jainey to release his frustrations about Ashlynn's relationship and the news that he was a great kisser spread quickly across the school. Rounds with Ashlynn went better after she and Jamie broke up over the Christmas holidays (the douchebag cheated on her with a muggle girl in his neighbourhood and Charlie didn't know whether to leap around in celebration that they were no longer dating or punch the idiot in the face for hurting his best friend). Over the rest of the year he snogged more and more girls from his year and the years above, it became less about releasing his frustrations and more about trying to move on from Ashlynn. Even when she wasn't dating someone else, she also wasn't dating him and his Gryffindor courage failed him time and time again.

He vowed to himself that he would ask her out when she visited him at the Burrow for a week that summer.

…

Ashlynn had gone to her maternal Grandmother's house to floo over to the Burrow this year as she was travelling from home rather than straight after staying with Tonks. Ashlynn's Mum's Mum was a witch who had married a muggle farmer and had a non-magical daughter. Ashlynn's Mum was an only child and was quite surprised when her first child with her muggle husband started to display signs of magic. Ashlynn's Grandmother however had stepped in straight away and explained everything to her daughter and son-in-law, they were all so excited when she'd received her letter to Hogwarts. Ashlynn's twin brothers, who were a year younger than her, weren't magical so they went to a local school and stayed living on their parents farm year round in the Gower in South Wales but they stayed close all year round through writing each other letters.

Ashlynn loved looking after the animals when they got sick but caring for animals wasn't her true passion, instead she really lit up when she healed her brothers' bumps and scrapes. When she was a child she had done this with magic without realising it, her maternal Grandmother recognised the ways the scars would disappear under her hands and each summer when she came home from Hogwarts she tutored Ashlynn in the magical first aid she knew. Her grandmother's teachings, having a way to use her magic for the good of her siblings and having them help her in return by carrying around the injured livestock when they were too heavy for her, allowed the three siblings to avoid jealousy or fear over her magical state.

Her other passion was for electronics. During the summer after fifth year Ashlynn was determined to make her Walkman work at school, she had loads of CDs and her Walkman could play them for her to listen to through headphones but electronics didn't work at Hogwarts because they were disrupted by the high magical intensity. She wanted to take it back to Hogwarts and show Jake Swethers her favourite songs, he was a muggle born boy in Charlie's dorm who adored music and played the guitar beautifully. Ashlynn tinkered with the device night after night, soldering and programming and adding a touch of magic. She really loved electronics and would definitely have gone to University to study some type of electrical engineering if, like her brothers, she hadn't been magical.

She finished working on the Walkman on the night before heading to the burrow and packed it, thinking she could test it in the magical environment, along with her booklist and a few sets of clothes in the new Cath Kidston overnight bag her Mum had bought her for doing so well in her OWLs. She had earned O in Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Arithmancy and Muggle Studies and earned E in History of Magic, Defense against the Dark Arts and Astronomy. She was well on her way in earning a place to study healing at St Mungos.

…

"Ashlynn, we're going to Hogwarts! We're going to Hogwarts!" Fred and George chanted as soon as she stepped out of the floo.

Her tinkling laugh rang through the Burrow as she danced in a circle with the 11 year old twins.

"Hello love" called Charlie from the doorway, he was lent against the wooden door frame in a shirt a little too small for him as his bulging biceps pulled at the seams.

"Hi you" she called back giggling at the ridiculousness of the dance moves the twins were now displaying.

Charlie sauntered over to her and grabbed her bag with one hand and her hand with the other, she noticed how it had become rougher over the weeks since their last prefect round and stroked her thumb over his knuckles. He led her up the stairs, dropping her bag off in Ginny's room and continuing up to the room he used to share with Bill. Pushing the door half shut behind them he released her hand as she wandered up to the left hand wall.

"How's Bill enjoying working with Gringotts?" Ashlynn asked, gazing at the moving photos and postcards written from Bill to Charlie adorning the wall above Bill's empty mattress.

"He seems to love it" Charlie replied watching her intently "he's travelling the world and learning to break all sorts of curses. He'll be stationed somewhere in a few months though, Mum's going to take it pretty hard if it's somewhere far away."

Ashlynn simply nodded in reply before walking over to Charlie's bed and sitting up on it, leaning her back against the wall and kicking her feet off the edge. Charlie melted when she smiled up at him and patted the bed beside her. He knew then that whatever she ever asked of him, he would do it without question and that feeling terrified him.

The best friends sat together, hand in hand on his soft mattress with their backs against the wall and feet playing with each other over the side of the bed. They chatted for hours just catching up with each other and filling each other in on all the mundane and ordinary bits of their summers that they missed out in their weekly letters to each other. Just as the smell of dinner wafted up the stairs and Charlie's stomach began to growl there was a loud crash outside the door. Jumping up and running out they found Tonks lying in a heap.

"Tonks!" They both cried reaching down and pulling her up by and arm each.

"Hey you two!" Tonks squealed as she pulled them into a big group hug together. They were best friends no matter what and the holidays were meant for best friends. "Mrs Weasley says dinner's ready so we better wash up and head back down."

"Alright but I'm holding your hand on the stairs Tonks, you're such a liability" Ashlynn giggled at her best friend "but you're our lovable liability" she added placating the scowl that had threatened to appear on Tonks' face. Grabbing Tonks' hand in one hand and Charlie's in the other she pulled them down a couple of flights of stairs to the main bathroom opposite Ginny's room to wash up and then continued on down to the kitchen from where the delicious scents of roast chicken were emanating from.

…

The next day the trio headed out to Diagon Alley with Mr and Mrs Weasley, Percy and the twins. Ron and Ginny had gone to the Lovegood family for the day to play with their daughter Luna who was around their age.

As they all got ready to floo, Percy pompously gave the twins a lecture covering all of the rules they would have to follow at Hogwarts. Percy was going into his third year and taking it very seriously. The twins however, were stood one on each side of Percy pulling silly faces at him every time he turned to look at the other.

Tonks and Ashlynn were chatting away about what they wanted to get from the shops, other than their essential school supplies, while Charlie contentedly chipped in occasionally with suggestions.

"Alright, alright you lot, let's go, let's go. Charlie you go first so you can greet the boys on the other side." Mrs Weasley instructed. "You next Ashlynn, don't forget to catch Tonks when she comes through" she muttered in Ashlynn's ear as Ashlynn grabbed a pitch of floo powder from the plant pot in the matriarch's hands.

After a dizzying moment of green flames, Ashlynn stepped out of the floo into the Leaky Cauldron and positioned herself on one side of the hearth with Charlie standing on the other, ready to catch Tonks between them. They grabbed hold of her arms and righted her the moment they saw her purple hair come tumbling through. Next came Percy who muttered something to himself about 'immature brothers' and moved out of the way, brushing his clothes down to make sure no soot or floo powder was on his clean clothes.

The twins arrived together in a whirlwind of excitement and laughter and Charlie dragged them out of the way so that the floo was clear for their parents while Tonks entertained them by morphing her face into various silly animals on request.

…

Two hours later the trio had all their school books, potions ingredients, quidditch gear and other equipment for school sorted. They all had new school robes too, Charlie's shoulders were now too chunky for Bill's old ones, and the girls were looking at dresses. Again. They did this every year and Charlie was resigned to the process by now.

Charlie wandered through the clothing racks at Gladrags while the girls gathered a heap of dresses each to try on. Some because they liked them and some because they were so hideous they couldn't miss the opportunity to try them on for a laugh.

On his meander through the shop, Charlie found a gold silk dress with pleated cap sleeves and a square neckline, noting that it was the same colour of gold that Ashlynn painted her nails. He picked it up and kept walking, stumbling across a playsuit with spaghetti straps and covered in rainbow sequins. He grabbed that too and brought them to the changing rooms as the girls came out in their first hideous outfits. He laughed with them as they came out in more and more ridiculous clothing for the next half hour before they finally got round to trying on the few items that they really liked. He thought Ashlynn looked beautiful in anything, but even he had to admit that some of the previous outfits were revolting.

Tonks found a short velvet dress that she was happy with which changed colour between greens and purples as she moved and sat down by Charlie on the bench ready to help Ashlynn decide. Ashlynn however couldn't find anything she was happy with. She was curvy and soft and tall. She didn't feel beautiful in anything she had picked up and was close to tears when she came out in the final dress, a v-neck red sweater dress that reached halfway down her thighs. Charlie thought she looked stunning in all of the outfits but Ashlynn didn't feel beautiful and that's all that really mattered.

Tonks jumped up holding her tight as the tears welled in her eyes, whispering to her how beautiful she was and how much she'd love to be curvy like her. The problem was that Ashlynn hadn't really felt confident about her body before dating Jamie and now felt even worse about herself since Jamie had cheated on her last Christmas.

Charlie couldn't understand the problem because he thought the world of her, he had also heard a lot of guys talk around school about how stunning Ashlynn was and how she was so unattainable. He stepped over and handed her the gold silk dress he had picked out for her and handed the rainbow sequin playsuit to Tonks.

"Just go try these last ones on and then we'll go, okay?" He encouraged as he guided Ashlynn back into the changing room and pulled the curtain across.

Tonks however stayed outside for an extra minute to whisper to Charlie.

"She feels ugly. That's the problem. She needs to feel desirable and I can't help her with that." Tonks whispered before dodging back into the other changing room to try on the playsuit.

Charlie was still stood up, struggling to get his head around how someone so incredibly gorgeous could ever consider themselves as anything less than beautiful when he heard a small sniffle. Ashlynn had come out of the changing room in the gold dress.

"Can you zip me up Charlie?" She asked timidly with another small sniffle.

His jaw dropped at the sight of her, his eyes raking across her figure taking in every curve as he went. After what felt to him like hours, his eyes eventually met hers and he was speechless. Nodding dumbly he moved behind her and gently grasped the zip in the centre of her back. Lifting one hand and brushing her curly hair over one shoulder reverently, he slowly pulled the zipper up as he watched the freckles on her back disappear one by one behind the silk. She turned back around slowly and looked into his face expectantly.

"You look… radiant" Charlie breathed out, awe evident across his face and his voice brimming with truth.

She smiled and his face lit up in a grin. She felt beautiful under his gaze at that moment and he would keep trying to make her feel beautiful whenever he got the chance.

…

She and Tonks bought the items Charlie had suggested and each grabbed a clutch bag that matched them on the way to the tills.

Leaving the store, with Charlie carrying all their bags from the day so far, they started to walk back up towards the Leaky Cauldron discussing their plans to grab a butterbeer while they waited for Charlie's family to be ready to go. Laughing loudly and joking away together it took a few minutes for them to hear a voice calling out from behind them.

"Ashlynn! Hey Ashlynn wait up!" A deep voice called loudly, matched with a fast set of footsteps pounding against the cobbled street.

Spinning on the spot Ashlynn saw a boy named Eric Langlorn running up the alley. He was a beater for Ravenclaw and they had worked together on their beater skills a little last year. He was a similar build to Charlie but very slightly shorter so he matched Ashlynn's height almost perfectly.

"Hi Eric. How's your summer going?" Ashlynn replied in a cheery tone while giving him a quick hug hello.

"Great, been honing my quidditch skills, I'm hoping to get scouted as it's my final year." He answered enthusiastically with a flex of his biceps for the girl in front of him. "I was actually wondering, if you're not too busy that is, if you'd like to grab an ice cream with me." Eric's confidence wavered at her surprised expression but he ploughed on "I really like you Ashlynn, you're beautiful, smart, caring and have one hell of a beater arm… Please?" He finished hopefully gazing into her eyes.

Charlie wondered if they mesmerised other boys like they mesmerised him but quickly shook that thought form his head. This guy just told her she looked beautiful, no matter who that message came from he desperately wanted her to believe it and Charlie's jealousy would not help in this situation…

"I would love to" Ashlynn replied quietly breaking Charlie from his thoughts "you two don't mind waiting for me do you? I'll make sure to be back in an hour so as not to keep Mr and Mrs Weasley waiting." she asked, turning back to Tonks and Charlie.

"No, of course not, go have fun!" Tonks said enthusiastically "Charlie and I will take your bags and see you at the Leaky in an hour. Don't be late mister, we're watching you." She teased Eric with a laugh as she pulled a frozen Charlie down the alley away from the potential new couple.

"She's too beautiful and brilliant for you to wait so long Charlie. Gather up that Gryffindor courage next time she's single and tell her how you feel you muppet." Tonks chastised Charlie all the way back to the pub.

Ashlynn had come back giddy with excitement an hour and a half later, Eric dropping her off at the Leaky's floo with a gentle kiss and a promise to write to her. She had a new boyfriend and felt over the moon. Charlie had missed his chance again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note
> 
> Hi again! Hope you're enjoying getting to know the characters, I sure am :)
> 
> Read, review, subscribe, bookmark, leave kudos, say hi, send a little love...
> 
> Wishin' girl x x x


	4. Falling - Chapter 4

6th Year

As soon as sixth year began it was clear that rumours of Charlie's abilities, and his rules, with girls had spread. By the time the Christmas holidays arrived he had kissed most of the girls in sixth and seventh year but had a few 'regulars'. He was still fooling around with Jainey and Mary-Angela and had added Leia Swayles, a seventh year Hufflepuff with a very womanly figure, and Trisha Middleton, a seventh year Slytherin who had a lot of experience, to his booty call list.

...

The night before they were due to leave for the Christmas break he had rounds with Ashlynn, they thankfully had been put together for prefect rounds again this year. Relieving his frustrations with the other girls made him much more relaxed around Ashlynn and he felt able to mess around like they used to without making too much of a fool out of himself. As usual they completed rounds hand in hand trading jokes and telling each other about all the mundane parts of their week that they knew no-one else but each other really cared about. Ashlynn told Charlie about how the french toast was a bit soggy by the time Ashlynn came down to breakfast the other morning as she was running late because she had got her hairbrush stuck in her curls again, which Charlie traded for a story about Kenny messing around with a practice quaffle in their dorm room the other day and causing Jake's guitar to make an unholy noise as it clattered on the floor. Apparently, despite the fact that the guitar was fine and Jake insisted that it was not a big deal, this was the reason why Kenny had been carrying Jake's books between classes and opening doors for him wherever they went, causing Jake's eye muscles to ache from all the rolling they were doing.

It appeared that no one wanted to risk getting in trouble on the last night of term so rounds were quick and easy, meaning they arrived back at the entrance hall half an hour early. They filled in their mostly blank report and Charlie started to walk Ashlynn down into the dungeons and towards her common room.

"We're in the prefects' compartment on the train home tomorrow right?" Ashlynn asked Charlie as they made their way down the stairs, walking hand in hand once again.

"Yeah, and you're still coming over for New Years Eve for the party we're hosting at the Burrow, aren't you?" He asked in reply with a squeeze of her hand.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world" she responded, pausing and looking into his eyes "you, me and Tonks will have fun like we always do" she finished with a small but genuine smile.

He lit up in response, drowning in the deep forest hidden in her eyes...until the moment was shattered by the booming voice of Eric.

"Hey Beautiful! You finished rounds early?" Eric questioned as he wrapped her up in a hug, glaring at Charlie who was refusing to release her hand.

"Yeah, Charlie was just walking me back" Ashlynn was either oblivious to or ignoring the tense air between the two lads "what are you doing all the way down here?"

"Just came to say goodnight" he smiled at her lustfully, his eyes darkening.

"I'll see you tomorrow love, okay?" Charlie sighed as he reluctantly released her hand. He was in love with her and that meant respecting her wishes, even if her wishes were stupid and involved dating a possessive douchebag like Eric f-ing Langlorn.

As he walked back towards the stairs he heard the conversation shared between Ashlynn and Eric in his wake.

"You know you're with me right princess?" Eric asked her, the anger carefully hidden in his voice.

"We're best friends Eric. Nothing more, but he is still my best friend and he's really important to me." Ashlynn replied placating Eric with a kiss "See, I save those just for you."

Charlie was a sucker for punishment and glanced behind him, seeing Eric gazing down into Ashlynn's eyes before kissing her and possessively ramming her up against the corridor's stone wall. Pacing it back to Gryffindor tower with his head down and shoulders hunched, he didn't even see Trisha standing next to the Fat Lady's portrait until he bumped into her at full force, knocking them both to the ground.

"I'm sorry Trish" Charlie mumbled as soon as he'd realised who it was.

"Don't be. I quite like you being on top of me Charlie Weasley" Trisha answered huskily before pulling his head down to meet hers, crashing their lips together.

He broke the kiss to pull her up before slamming his mouth back against hers and reversing her into the nearest broom cupboard and gently up against the back wall, kicking the door closed behind him. Images of Ashlynn with Eric clouded his brain as he snogged Trisha but he abruptly pushed them from his mind and focused on the gorgeous woman in front of him.

His hands roamed through her long straight hair, pulling out her ponytail hair band so that it fell down her back. His hand followed the contours of her body down to her thigh, pushing up her skirt and hitching her leg around his waist. Charlie's left hand slid under her shirt to play with her perky breasts. Tweaking a nipple gently through the thin lace of her bra Charlie swallowed Trisha's whimpers and moans with his kisses. His right hand slid up her thigh and cupped the small mound at the apex of her legs, he could feel her black lace panties were wet through already. He gently ran his finger back and forth on top of the lace trying his best to stay in the moment.

She reacted to his large, rough hands with fervour, moaning into his mouth and bucking her hips into his hand. Smirking at the reaction he had gotten out for his work he slid the strip of lace to one side and slipped his fingers between her folds slowly running his fingers back and forth between her dripping core and the pulsing nib of her clit. He had received extensive advice from his older brother on how to take care of a woman, so when she was soaking wet and trembling he slowly inserted a finger into her. She was so tight that he took his time before inserting a second. Curling his two fingers inside her he found her g-spot and continued to tweak, circle and rub her clit with his thumb and her nipple with the other hand. She continued to writhe and buck to his ministrations and was soon screaming his name in pleasure as she toppled over the edge of her climax.

Charlie swallowed her screams with a kiss and continued to play with her as she came down. Weak and at the mercy of his large hands she was soon ramping up to a second orgasm. When she came the second time Charlie felt a wash of warm liquid flowing over his hand, pumping twice more inside her as she finished squirting, he gently removed his hands from her and held her tightly so she didn't crumble on her wobbly legs.

Once Trisha was able to breathe steadily again Charlie let her go, ready to head back to his common room for the night as it was already way past curfew.

Trisha had other ideas.

Placing her palms flat against his chest Trisha slowly slid down to her knees in front of him. It was clear that his erection had not gone away when it twitched at her suggestive action. Looking up at him from her position on the floor she batted her eyelashes and reached for the buttons on his jeans.

"May I?" She asked coyly, looking up at him through her long fake lashes.

With a simple nod from Charlie she slowly undid the buttons and dragged both his jeans and tight boxers, that already had a small wet patch from his pre-cum, down his legs. She gripped the base of his shaft and slowly began to pump up and down.

Charlie watched mesmerised as she licked the tip, swirling her tongue around it before it disappeared into her warm, wet mouth. Biting his lip Charlie lent his arms against the wall in front of him, leaning over Trisha's kneeling body and pushing his cock further into her mouth.

Stifling a gag as the tip of his penis hit the back of her throat, Trisha sucked and licked the top half of his shaft, while one hand pumped the bottom half that couldn't fit inside her and the other hand gently teased his balls. She played with him, humming around his cock at his moans and rolling her first just behind his balls slowly bringing him closer and closer to release.

"I'm… oh I'm gonna...I'm gonna cum" Charlie moaned, but instead of freeing him as he had expected, Trisha squeezed his balls again and sucked harder on his cock encouraging his release.

He came explosively in her mouth and she swallowed thickly, licking his tip and shaft clean before pulling his boxers and jeans back up for him.

When they had recovered, Charlie headed back to Gryffindor tower and collapsed into bed fully clothed and fully satiated. He fell asleep as his head hit the pillow and didn't stir until his dorm mates woke him just in time to shower, pack and grab some quick breakfast before catching the train home for Christmas.

…

"What happened to you two last night then?" Tonks teased Charlie and Ashlynn as they sat in a Thestral pulled carriage on their way to Hogsmeade Station "You didn't come into the dorm until after I was asleep" she pointed a teasingly accusing finger as Ashlynn "and Jake said he heard you come in about an hour after you're usually back!" She moved her accusing finger across to Charlie.

They each looked at each other in confusion for a few minutes.

"I bumped into someone on my way back" Charlie blushed "why were you that late though love, I dropped you off with Eric much earlier than you usually get back?"

At Ashlynn's blush Charlie's heart dropped to the floor. Eric.

"I… um… Eric and I were just wishing each other merry Christmas" she replied, her grin widening and blush deepening.

"Oh yeah, do tell" Tonks enquired with a wink "is he 'special'?"

"No, not that" Ashlynn replied with a laugh "we just spent some time enjoying each other's company - clothes on."

Charlie let out a breath he didn't know he was holding at her last 2 words. Thankfully the subject changed and they moved onto other topics for the rest of the carriage ride, Tonks and Ashlynn had heard enough rumours of Charlie's prowess as the school's 'sex god' that they didn't need any more information about his night time escapades the evening before.

…

The Burrow was a whirlwind of activity all day as Molly directed and instructed the setup of a major event. There was a marquee up in the garden which Bill, who had come home for the holidays, was tasked with enchanting with numerous warming charms until it was the temperature of a late spring afternoon. Molly was cooking a thousand dishes for a buffet. Percy was setting up the tables and Ron was covering them with tablecloths. Ginny was charged with overseeing the twins' behaviour as they hung golden twinkling lights from the roof of the marquee and all the surrounding trees along the edge of the orchard. Charlie, having recently turned seventeen, was helping his Dad to magically clear a path in the thick snow from the house to the marquee, charm it to not freeze and transfigure a floating, multicoloured roof above the path out of Arthur's collection of muggle umbrellas.

At nine o'clock the guest started to arrive at the apparition point on the edge of the wards and into the fireplace, guests coming via floo had been given a time with their invitations to make sure that there weren't any collisions. Despite this precaution, Charlie heard a loud crash echo from the lounge at around ten o'clock, as he descended the stairs after getting dressed up ready for the party. He rushed into the lounge to see a well dressed woman looking down sternly at a giggling heap of sequins and purple hair.

"Tonks!" He called out in excitement. "Welcome Mrs Tonks, it's lovely to see you again" Charlie greeted as he hugged the older woman after helping Tonks up to her feet.

"You know it's Andromeda dear, but yes it's lovely to see you too. Now just point me in either the direction of Molly or the firewhiskey and we can get this party started." Androma's stern gaze had eased considerably when Tonks was set back on her feet.

"Both are that way." Chuckling at her words Charlie pointed through the kitchen to the open back door, through which you could already hear the music filling the marquee.

"You wore the one I found" Charlie exclaimed excitedly as he hugged his best friend again.

"I did and you'll be even happier in about a minute" Tonks replied with a wink.

Just then the floo lit up green again and out popped Ashlynn, her curly hair put half up, half down, a smattering of light makeup on her freckled face and she wore a gold silk dress to match her gold painted nails. Charlie's body seized completely as though he had been petrified where he stood, he had not been prepared to see anything so beautiful.

"Hey you, hey Tonks" she greeted with a smile which wavered and fell as she saw Charlie's frozen expression "I should go change" she said sadly, "I told you I look silly" she added turning to Tonks then back to the floo.

"No. Not silly. Very, very not silly." Charlie shouted suddenly making both girls jump at the unexpected volume "You look even more radiant than the first time I saw you in that dress" he softly explained, stepping towards her he allowed his eyes to rake over her figure again and again before getting lost in her eyes.

"You look stunning" Tonks added stepping forwards and grabbing Charlie's arm before he did anything stupid with a girl who had a boyfriend.

"Firewhiskey?" Tonks suggested after a moment of heavy silence as her two best friends looked into each other's eyes 'Maybe that'll help them see sense' she added in her head 'or maybe it'll loosen their inhibitions too much. Eh it's worth a shot'.

…

By quarter to midnight the trio were very tipsily dancing in the centre of the marquee. Bill pulled Charlie away when he started to get a little handsy with Ashlynn for a few strict words, having already been informed of the boyfriend situation and earlier close call by Tonks.

"She's just so gorgeous" Charlie whined as Bill told him off "she's so beautiful and she's really, really clever. Like did you know she got seven O's and three E's in her OWLs? That's a lot of good marks and she's not even a Ravenclaw. She's so sweet and funny too and she tells the best jokes on our rounds. She's great at healing stuff too, like when I punched a wall when I saw her and that twit-muffin Eric kissing after he kept telling her what to do, she healed it right up. Not even a potion or anything just waved her wand and rubbed it with those soft hands of hers. She has such soft hands Bill, so beautiful and soft, and they fit in mine so perfectly every week for rounds. She's friends with everyone too, she even showed Jake this little box that plays music and they listen to it for hours and hours on end when she comes to the Gryffindor common room. Yeah I know, it's amazing. She's amazing. She says it's elek-ter-ick and she made it work on the magic of Hogwarts. No one's ever done that before Bill, no one. She's so damn cool and I love her Bill. I love her with every breath and I can't not love her. She's everything to me. I'm gonna kiss her Bill. At midnight I'm gonna hold her and I'm gonna kiss her and I'm gonna show her how special and magical and wonderful she is."

Charlie tried to stand up from the table Bill had sat him at, but Bill just pulled him back down.

"No Charlie. You're not." Bill said, his face stern but his voice full of heartbreak for his younger brother. "She's got a boyfriend Charlie and it's not you. You have to let her be happy. You have to be her friend."

"I can't. I can't Bill, I love her." Charlie's voice broke as he said it, knowing deep down that Bill was right.

"It's just for now okay little brother. One day you'll pluck up the courage, without the firewhiskey and at the right time. Then you can be together, happy for the rest of your lives." Bill's voice sang equally of sadness and hope.

Charlie nodded his head and they walked back over towards the girls, still dancing under the golden mirrorball as the countdown began.

TEN

Charlie looked at the smile on Ashlynn's face and thought that if the sun, stars and moon ever stopped shining, he wouldn't even notice as long as he could see the light in her smile.

NINE

Tonks grabbed his left hand and Ashlynn grabbed his right, their other hands joined too holding the trio together. He was ever so grateful for his best friends at that moment.

EIGHT

Ashlynn's gaze turned towards him and their eyes met.

SEVEN

The rest of the world was disappearing as he got lost in her forest eyes again.

SIX

He drew patterns across her face with his lingering gaze as he joined her freckles in nonsensical dot to dots.

FIVE

His eyes fell upon her lips, they were rosy from the firewhiskey she'd been drinking and the way she worried them between her teeth.

FOUR

His mind swam as her lips shimmered and glittered from her lip gloss.

THREE

Her face turned away and her hand fell from his.

TWO

Charlie blinked in confusion wondering where she had gone.

ONE

Tonks pulled Charlie into a tight hug, turning him to face the other way.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note
> 
> Happy New Year (in story) to you all!
> 
> So far the chapters have been super long (this was the shortest at over 3,000 words), are you all happy with this length or would shorter instalments be better? Please leave a review to let me know!
> 
> Some parts of the story might warrant slightly shorter chapters but if you like it this way I'll keep it the most part this way or if you'd prefer shorter ones just let me know...
> 
> Wishin' girl x x x


	5. Falling - Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note
> 
> Trigger Warning - Abuse.
> 
> Remember it is never okay and if you are being abused then it is NEVER your fault.

"Happy New Year Charlie." Tonks spoke directly into his ear so she could be heard over all the celebratory noise surrounding them.

A second later he was pulled into another set of arms, these were the stronger arms of his older brother Bill.

"Happy New Year mate" Bill's deep voice spoke into his other ear "let's go grab a drink."

Bill marched Charlie away from the dance floor with Tonks flanking Charlie's other side. He looked around to see where the girl he loved had gone and spotted her under the glittering mirrorball on the dancefloor.

She was wrapped up in the arms of a Ravenclaw who was kissing her passionately and gripping her hips possessively. Charlie wondered why it wasn't him. Why he wasn't good enough for her to love. Why it wasn't him kissing her on New Years Eve, he would never hold her that harshly. He would give her the world if she'd let him.

Bill pulled him back around as they reached the edge of the marquee and Charlie broke down in his brother's arms. Worried and saddened for his brother, the eldest Weasley son carried him to bed while Tonks grabbed a bottle of firewhiskey and brought it up to Charlie and Bill's room for them to share. Knowing that the boys would need space to talk she bid them goodbye and returned to the party to run interference for the next hour.

By one o'clock most of the guests had started to leave, as many of them either had children waiting at home or already asleep on the sofas littering the edges of the marquee. Tonks trudged upstairs to bed in Ginny's room us usual with a yawn but as she passed the landing window the metamorphmagus saw Ashlynn walking towards the burrow's Orchard with her boyfriend Eric. Tonks tried to wait up for her best friend to come up to bed so they could talk about the evening's events but she was so emotionally exhausted that she fell asleep before Ashlynn even returned to the house. She felt bad for Charlie but neither of her best friends had done anything wrong, it's just hard to watch your friends hurting and she knew that Ashlynn would have much rather kissed Charlie tonight. Even if she didn't think Ashlynn knew it yet.

…

The next morning Charlie woke with a killer hangover and a bucket next to his bed that had been conjured by Bill.

"How are we feeling over there?" Bill asked as quietly as he could.

Despite this kind effort Charlie winced at the noise anyway and rolled over trying not to vomit but ending up doing so into the bucket that had been carefully placed in line with his head. This wasn't the Weasley boys' first night of firewhiskey.

"Thought good, hey?" Bill continued in worry. In other circumstances he would have mocked his younger brother mercilessly, but after the younger brother's confessions of last night Bill didn't have the heart to add to Charlie's misery.

The two of them had stayed up until dawn, Bill listening to Charlie explain in great detail what it was about Ashlynn that he loved so very deeply and why he couldn't seem to let her go. Charlie drowned his sorrows in the bottle of firewhiskey that Tonks had brought up in the hopes that, if he drank enough, he would forget what he saw. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and Charlie's mind was still assaulted that morning with images of Eric with his hands and lips all over the blonde girl.

"Brunch is ready!" Molly's voice spread through the house alongside wafts of bacon, sausage and egg.

"Coming Mum." Bill replied as loudly as he dared, his heart breaking again as he looked into his brother's eyes. "Let's get you some food and see how today goes."

With the support of Bill, Charlie made it downstairs in one piece and sat heavily into the nearest kitchen chair. Unfortunately this placed him opposite Ashlynn. 'Just what I need' he thought sarcastically.

Tonks attempted to help Molly (much to Molly's fret that everything would end up going flying) by bringing the food to the table and then sat in the last empty seat, which luckily ended up being next to Charlie. Chatter built up around the table as they all ate and Charlie's stomach started to settle. By half an hour later his hangover was completely gone even though his sorrow was still going strong. Noticing the sudden lack of hangover Bill looked curiously around the table until he met his Dad's eyes at the far end, Arthur simply winked at his eldest son and subtly raised his glass of pumpkin juice. Bill smiled in thanks as he realised his Dad had poured everyone's drinks that morning and must have slipped a SoberUp potion into Charlie's.

The topic soon reached midnight kisses from the previous night and Molly started to question Ashlynn on her boyfriend, she was a sucker for a romance.

"He's really smart" Ashlynn started with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes "and strategic. He's a seventh year and plays beater for Ravenclaw and is hoping to get signed before the start of summer."

Arthur looked worriedly at his eldest two sons and Tonks, who was like another daughter to him, all three of whom had gone exceedingly quiet at this line of conversation.

"Well I'm glad he's ambitious, we sure know you are." Molly replied with a chuckle. "How does he make you feel, dear?"

Ashlynn was thrown by this question. Make her feel? Well sometimes he made her feel beautiful and like no other girls existed in the world. Sometimes he made her feel like she had been the worst girlfriend to ever exist, just by spending time with her two best friends or completing her prefect duties. Often she felt these conflicting emotions together in a swirl of pride and guilt and her mind flew back to last night when this had confliction had once again plagued her.

"Let's talk a walk beautiful" Eric requested after about an hour of snogging and cuddling on the dance floor.

He had met lots of her friends and many other guests at the party in that time and shown her off like a prized trophy. He told everyone how beautiful she was and how she was the most incredible woman he'd ever dated, but now everyone seemed to be heading home he wanted some alone time.

"We can go to the orchard," Ashlynn suggested, taking his hand and walking him out the back of the marquee "the twins put lights up earlier along the edge of the trees."

Once they were deep in the orchard where no one else could see them she turned and kissed him deeply. Smiling brightly she broke the kiss and gazed into his eyes.

"Am I the only one you kiss like that?" He asked, his grip tightening painfully on her hips.

"Of course you are, you know that Eric" she responded quickly, he'd asked these types of questions many times before.

"Am I the only one you gaze at like this?" He asked, his painful grip now tight enough it would definitely leave bruises.

"Yes, Eric, only you" she replied, wriggling and trying to ease his grip on her.

"Liar!" He shouted, slapping her hard across the face "I saw you looking at that 'friend' of yours when I arrived."

"We were just doing the countdown. All three of us, me, Charlie and Tonks." She explained calmly as she tried to placate him, he'd lashed out like this before as well so his behaviour wasn't too much of a shock. "I didn't know you were coming otherwise I would have been counting down with you. Thank you for apparating over and surprising me Eric."

"I don't want you near him again, do you hear me? You are MY girlfriend. You belong to ME." He growled at her, shoving her hard into a tree. She bounced off the rough trunk and fell down to the floor between the roots of the tree.

"He's my friend Eric. I won't stop being friends with him. I'm sorry it upsets you but I won't leave my friends." She replied in a strong voice that she even surprised herself with.

"You are MINE!" Eric countered as he grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her up just to punch her in the stomach and push her back down. Her exposed hands, arms and legs were getting scratched in the frosty undergrowth as she fell or was pushed onto the rough orchard floor again and again. "Don't forget that, witch."

Ashlynn sat there deathly still and tried not to breathe too loud as she watched him walk away. After about half an hour, and when she was sure he was really gone, she gingerly lifted herself up and shakily healed the scratches and bruises starting to bloom across her arms, hands and face. She didn't have the energy for any more and wouldn't be able to heal the bruising across her own back anyway.

She eventually crept back up to the burrow and into bed. It wasn't until dawn started to break that she managed to cry herself to sleep.

"Ash dear, is everything okay?" Molly nudged as Ashlynn stared off into space.

"Oh yeah of course, sorry what was the question?" She responded softly.

"Why don't we all go have a quick game of quidditch?" Arthur jumped in loudly, taking over every conversation under way around the table.

…

The start of the spring term came and went without much fanfare. The rest of Ashlynn's bruises and scratches from New Year's Eve healed on their own in time. Unfortunately Eric now came to see Ashlynn at the end of her rounds with Charlie every week and his punishments for holding her best friend's hand during rounds were slowly escalating week by week.

Eric knew that she could heal the bruises on her face so didn't worry about where he put them unless he wanted the pain to last in which case he used her back. His punishments continued to get more severe as the weeks passed so he made sure that she felt they were her own fault and he was justified in his actions. He took her out and doted on her during Hogsmeade weekends and showed her off around school to everyone who would look or listen so that she felt even more guilty and like no-one would ever believe her if she told them the truth.

In contrast, Charlie continued to spend time with various girls around the castle, giving them immense pleasure and further cementing his unofficial title as Hogwarts' resident 'sex god' but not dating any officially.

As they passed the Easter break and neared the end of the year, she tried to spread out the length of their rounds, as though she were reluctant for them to reach the end. Charlie was more than keen for her to do this as he adored spending time with her, no matter what they were doing even if it was an otherwise dull prefect round he always enjoyed his time with her.

…

The morning after their longest set of rounds so far Tonks ran face first into him in the corridor near the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Watch out Tonks, you nearly bowled me over then" Charlie chuckled for a moment before his face fell when he saw the worry etched across hers "what's wrong?"

She glanced up and down the corridor before dragging him to a nearby empty classroom and finally speaking.

"It's Ashlynn. I'm worried about her" she started, giving Charlie a stern look that clearly said 'wait 'till I'm done before you start asking questions' when he began to open his mouth to respond. "She's been getting these strange bruises up her back. She keeps brushing it off saying it's from quidditch practise. But the last game was weeks ago and this morning there were more bruises. And… and there were welts and open cuts across her back. Like...like she'd been beaten..." Tonks choked out the last few words.

Charlie's knuckles were white from gripping the desk he was leaning against so hard. After a few deep breaths and calming thoughts of his happy place, a dark green and muddy brown forest with rays of golden sunshine trickling through the branches, he managed a very strained reply.

"Let's find her and ask her together, she's rubbish at lying when it's to the both of us at once." Charlie pushed himself away from the desk and he and Tonks began their search of the castle.

It was the Friday before exams started so there were no lessons for the sixth year students meaning she could be anywhere around the castle, so their search took quite some time despite them knowing their best friend's favourite places so well. The pair found her a few hours later, sat at the edge of the lake on a rock with the bottom of her jeans rolled up (Eric didn't like her wearing shorts in front of anyone else despite the current heat wave) and her bare feet dangling into the water.

"Hi love" Charlie called out as they approached.

"Hello Tonks. Hey you." She replied with a smile on her lips but her eyes were defeated and full of sorrow.

"How are you doing love?" Charlie asked her gently as he sat with her on the rock, Tonks on her other side. "How's your back doing? Tonks said you'd got some bruises from quidditch practice."

"Oh, no they're fine, all gone now." She shuffled awkwardly between them.

"Can I see?" He asked her as his fingers played softly with the back of her baggy t-shirt.

He slowly lifted the hem at her shaky nod and saw bruises layered upon bruises across her back. He saw a series of large welts that looked like they were from a belt buckle and three deep, gaping cuts too. His eyes welled up in horror at what he saw before he wrapped her up in the most gentle hug he could manage.

"What happened to you, love?" He begged quietly "Please, please tell us. Tonks and I love you and will always be here for you. No matter what happened, we'll always be here."

"We will Ash, Charlie's right for once. We're your best friends and you're safe with us." Tonks added, her eyes flooded with tears for her best friend.

Ashlynn just shook her head, her eyes wide in fear. When she heard a voice call out to her from up the slope, her muscles visibly tensed and her face drained of all colour. Ashlynn's usual sun kissed glow was now a ghostly grey.

"My Ash. There you are." Eric's voice reached Charlie's ears just as he noticed these changes in Ashlynn's body.

His and Tonks eyes connected in fear, revulsion and realisation.

"Love, look at me" Charlie murmured gently to her and turned her chin softly to face him "was it...love, did he…?"

Ashlynn's head nodded almost imperceptibly and Charlie leaped at Eric knocking him down and pummelling him into the ground. His strong fists found cheekbones, shoulder muscles, stomach tissue, anything he could reach indiscriminately until Tonks pulled Charlie off Eric's battered body and pushed him over to a shaking, crying Ashlynn before taking a couple of swift kicks at Eric herself.

Dizzy and outnumbered Eric cowardly ran back up to the castle.

…

Charlie and Tonks had been sworn to secrecy when Ashlynn explained the whole story to them that night. They begged her to tell a teacher, her family, someone in Magical Law Enforcement, anyone... but she didn't want to and they had promised that they weren't going to push her into anything she didn't want to do or punish her for anything either. Having refused point blank to go see Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing in fear of being asked about the cause of the injuries, Ashlynn talked Tonks through the spells she needed to use on her back and after several attempts and the application of a few salves that Ashlynn had brewed in secret, her back had finally begun to heal.

The three of them were even more close than usual over the last couple of weeks of term and Charlie and Tonks never left Ashlynn on her own, accompanying her to and from the Great Hall, lakeside, library, quidditch pitch and anywhere else she felt like going. She spent more time with Charlie's dorm mates, especially Jake as they listened for hours on end to the Walkman music player she'd rigged the previous summer to work in high magic environments, as he took her there whenever they came across a time that neither he nor Tonks could be by her side.

Jake had taken up Charlie's spot on the train and was huddled together with her on the Hogwarts express on their way home at the end of the year, sharing her earphones as they listened to their favourite muggle bands together when Charlie came back from finishing their last prefects rounds of the year on his own. His fist bloody and bruised.

"Charlie what happened" Ashlynn exclaimed as she reached out and held his hand in both of hers. Brushing her fingers lightly across his knuckles she checked for breaks (something she'd learnt to do for her brothers when they got in fist fights back home) before cleaning away the blood and healing the bruises and scratches with her wand.

"He was in the corridor" Charlie looked directly at her, his eyes swimming with apology "I'm so sorry love, I tried to walk past but I just thought about…I couldn't help myself. I'm so sorry Ash." His voice trailed off as she held him in a tight hug.

"I forgive you Charlie. Just no more now, okay?" Ashlynn said firmly as she pulled back and looked into his eyes "I'm moving forward and you should too."

…

Ashlynn didn't visit the Burrow that year. Her magical Grandmother passed away at the start of the summer holidays so she stayed at home with her family as they attempted to hold each other together.

Charlie and Tonks apparated over to the farm her family lived on during the days that they were free, all three best friends having passed their apparition tests during the last year at school. Having been to stay during most of their summer breaks since starting Hogwarts Charlie and Tonks knew where to apparate to without scaring the farm animals or being seen by outsiders on the roads, and they fortunately knew the family well enough to be able to help out without adding any pressure. Ashlynn's two best friends had always been a part of her family in the eyes of her brothers and parents, but that summer they became even more so.

Tonks helped Ashlynn's Dad with the main farming jobs. Her clumsiness didn't make her very good at it but he appreciated her effort and willingness to support their family all the same.

Charlie helped Ashlynn's Mum around the house, since she was the daughter of a witch he was allowed to use magic around her so he would often cook the family's meals and clean the house, allowing her the time and space to grieve.

Ashlynn and her brothers tried to keep themselves busy with their usual tasks around the farm and house. It was a hard summer for the family but they made it through.

That was the first year Ashlynn cried as she said goodbye to her family and boarded the Hogwarts Express on the first of September.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone!
> 
> Thank you rubyrowline and Lemonspritz for leaving comments, it's so wonderful to hear from you and to know you're reading and enjoying my story :)
> 
> So some pretty hefty themes in this chapter I hope you're all doing alright. I would love to hear from you in a comment but please take it easy on me over the content of this chapter, it's hard to relive some stuff.
> 
> Remember if you are ever stuck in a controlling situation you do not have to be there if you do not want to be and it is not your fault. There will always be someone there to listen to you even though it probably doesn't feel that way right now...google is perfect for finding local anonymous support if you need it.
> 
> Love,  
> Wishin' girl x x x


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